Existing comment:
Sept 18, 1850 -- Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, an effort to resolve disputes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States.
May 30, 1854 -- The Kansas-Nebraska Act overturned the Missouri Compromise and allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to determine their own policies on slavery. [Both ended up being free states.]
Mar 6, 1857 -- The Dred Scott decision decided that African Americans were not United States citizens and that Congress had no authority to exclude slavery in the new territories.
Oct 16-18, 1859 -- John Brown raided Harpers Ferry, Virginia in an attempt to secure weapons and incite slave revolt.
Nov 6, 1860 -- Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States.
Dec 20, 1860 -- South Carolina was the 1st state to secede from the United States.
Jan 9, 1861 -- Mississippi seceded.
Jan 10, 1861 -- Florida seceded. |